Immortal Kingdoms

The last to arrive was Rosaline in the company of Merlin, Elizabeth, Victoria, and Madeline. However, they were the least bothered with formalities of the bunch and landed the closest to Leonardo— Rosaline in particular hugged his arm with an enchanting smile.

"How was it?" She asked, resting her slender finger on his chest, unknowingly averting her gaze from the pitch-darkness that was his eyes. She was too accustomed to sticking close to Leonardo after her episodes as Aria, it all felt too natural for her.

Leonardo too, felt this to be quite natural as he habitually reached out to pat her head, drawing an unnoticeable mirth in her narrowed, crimson eyes.

Inwardly, she apologetically stuck out her tongue at her daughter for shamelessly flirting with the latter's man in broad daylight. However, she also had her boundaries that she would never cross; her husband who she had yet to get any news of.

She can be many things except unfaithful.

Even if her relationship was an arranged one without no feelings whatsoever, she owed the man of her children at least that bit of faith until his fate was no longer a mystery.

She felt awful that seven parts of her wanted the man dead, two parts wanted him alive, yet forever gone, and one part wanted his return. There was no love lost between them, but some thighs are just inexplicable.

To everyone else however, it seemed as though Rosaline was flaunting her status in Leonardo's heart as though to emphasize that if she wanted, she could go wild in his name and he wouldn't find faults with her afterward.

This was the legendary skill, might even call it the flaw of overthinking that many humans had despite their age and wisdom. It was truly a pity that some things are inherent to the human mind despite years of progression.

"Young Master Leonardo, a pleasure to meet you," the young man from earlier advanced after receiving a nod from the old man behind him.

He was quite handsome with standard short black hair and blue eyes, fair skin, and an impeccable demeanor. His robes had the insignia of three swords wedged into a tall shield, a crack extending from the core of the shield in three separate directions.

Leonardo didn't know what power faction or sect this insignia belonged to, but he had all the time in the world to slowly look into these things.

He smiled in kind and replied. "Guests, as you can see, I have just finished my tribulation and I need to stabilize my core after the moulding; hopefully you can understand. In the meantime, everyone can wait in the serene ambiance of Greenheart City while I and my subordinates make quick work to tidy up the place and build a hospitable environment to receive everyone openly and cordially."

Leonardo wanted to extract the latent ferocious intent left in the claw marks and fuse them into his new halberd technique before extracting the mountains and arranging them once again into the terrain, taking advantage of his immense calculative mind frame to build a palace like no other— one that spans over hundreds of miles and wrestles the clouds in heights.

This thing would undoubtedly take time if it weren't for his and Rosaline's high cultivation base. Hearing him say that, the crowd had nothing else to say as they needed to give him that much face.

Not to mention, even if he wanted to receive them now, should they really be left stranded in the wilderness while discussing matters? That didn't make any sense.

"I offended your grace with my silly words earlier, young master." The woman from the Wind Fall Pavilion took this chance to speak up. "Allow this girl to stay behind and help with construction, please."

She would rather stay behind than leave with these people after that insightful display. Furthermore, she was worried Rosaline might speak ill of her to Leonardo and hence, she might as well take the initiative to bring the matter while offering free labor as compensation.

Leonardo gave Rosaline a confused look as she clung to his arm, while the latter merely rolled her eyes with thinned-out lips, not intending to pursue the matter.

"If you want," Leonardo thought for a moment and responded, "I guess you can be of some help, I'm afraid my cultivation base can't keep up with the large-scale reconstruction about to take place. However, just know that you will have to willingly enter my domain later, are you fine with that?"

Willingly entering the domain of someone else was like handing them a knife and turning your back on them. It was no simple matter, very few would go through with it.

Not to mention, she would be as good as naked in his perception; no secrets kept whatsoever. This, for a woman, was too critical of a matter.

Leonardo had to make things clear in the open lest people slander him in the future.

With so many people standing witness, this won't backfire on him later on.

The woman's expression obviously faltered for a brief moment before the sound of teeth being clenched echoed in everyone's ears. They didn't blame her; a tough decision to make. She eventually nodded.

Leonardo was both surprised and curious as to what could she have possibly said that drove her to such extremes; was it really so serious of a matter?

Whatever, a helping hand would make things much easier, and building a sturdy palace infused by the laws of two singularity realm cultivators in addition to his all-encompassing laws was perfect, to say the least.

He even planned to compress the ether veins underground into a byproduct of his original technique; the soul pearl, and watch the developments of this territory over the years. It might even awaken a guardian spirit on the level of tier 6 or tier 7 natural treasure.

Everyone else quickly departed, led by the reluctant rebirth realm cultivator from the City Magistrate Manor back into Greenheart City. The group had a particular interest in visiting Leonardo's former residence in the 7th district.

Those who chose to stay behind, particularly the survivors from the divinities from regulars to high divinities, Reia and Damian included, stayed behind to observe the spectacle as mountains shifted and rivers flowed into existence out of nowhere, fascinated by what they'd witnessed.

Not everyone had the opportunity to witness how the natural world reacts to the intrusion of matter from a rebirth cultivator's private dimension and they'd be damned as fools to depart with this chance.

Madeline and the rest stayed within the protective range of the formation of Blackrain City the entire time. Although the city had yet to be built, the foundations for the formation were still there and the city was simply one of the nodes. In fact, Leonardo planned to expand his base of operations now that both he and Rosaline made it into the ranks of rebirth realm cultivators.

It wouldn't be difficult to hire wandering cultivators and establish the foundation for a rising power if he did things with moderation and didn't harm the interests of anyone of importance. The visit from the representatives of the great sects was a good opportunity as they abide by rules restricting their interactions with the secular world in the territories of the three dynasties, but such things were of no significance to Leonardo whatsoever.

It could be said that the great sects would find a very good business partner in Leonardo, but they too knew not to take things too far.

He didn't know much about the Wind Fall Pavilion, but since it had a pavilion suffix in the name, it must be something related to the auxiliary professions in the cultivation world be it runic inscriptions, alchemy, or artifact forging.

Whichever it was, this would be a good start.

For almost an entire month, the land didn't cease its shaking as mountains tumbled and collapsed only to be reenacted once again. Leonardo's precise calculations amazed the two women as they pulverized, slashed, cut, smelted, and connected slabs of stone and pillars of marble and precious stones into constructing great halls, palaces, corridors, courtyards, gardens, waterfalls, ponds, and they were even capable of creating glass and various alloys under Leonardo's instructions.

The way matter interacted and transformed from one state to another and eventually went through a fundamental transformation seemed to contain hidden truths and principles, the entire experience benefitted the woman, greatly at that.

During their interactions, Leonardo learned her name; Aurora.

Another pleasant surprise was that the Wind Fall Pavilion was a forging hall which explained why she was confident to promptly help with the construction. She had to admit, the innovative means by which Leonardo practically forged matter without the use of orthodox forging methods aspired her, something he called chemistry to her reference.

One month later, the three of them stood on the back of the cloud crane.

The two women stood to the side while Leonardo sat comfortably, holding his chin as he admired the construction below. A total of nine great halls and three grand palaces with a clear river winding between, mounted by a layer of translucent hardened glass littered with small runic inscriptions matched perfectly based on Leonardo's understanding and calculations.

The walls were sparkling white with crimson red, vein-like patterns crawling all over them. Of the three grand palaces, one stood conspicuously high, onyx black in structure while exuding the pressure only those who frequented the old mountain range would recognize— the pressure from the three claw marks left behind by the ancient God Beast.

The stone with the markings was erected at the peak of the staircase leading into the palace; only those who have achieved a cultivation base at the peak of core moulding by Leonardo's standards can ascend the staircase and enter his private grand palace.

Of course, for people like Aurora and Rosaline, this entire thing was redundant.

Who would dare barge into the living quarters of Leonardo after the last display?

Nonetheless, Leonardo has his goals. Although he didn't say it, he was continually tempering his body of laws with this pressure according to the methods he learned in the Sky Mountains Region back on planet Arcadia, planning to have his physique durable enough to withstand the pressure without relying on energy; ether or otherwise.

"Are you planning to host a meeting in one of the great halls or the grand palaces?"

Aurora inspected the nine halls and three palaces that stood like ancient beasts, feeling pleased with herself to have taken part in the creation of such a magnificent scene. This place lacked dense and pure ether in the ambiance, otherwise, it would have looked no different from the peaks of a great sect.

"You can invite them to the fourth great hall, I plan to make it into an auction house in the future so it'd be best to get accustomed to it as early as possible." Leonardo touched his chin for a bit and answered.

"What do you plan to auction?" Aurora asked, a bit curious. Luckily, Rosaline didn't try to sour the relationship between Leonardo and the Winter Fall Pavilion throughout this month of operating together.

Leonardo smiled brightly, "What else would I have to offer other than plots of land? I will have to forward my plans a bit. With Black Rain City to the east, I will construct three grand cities in the remaining cardinal directions and auction out the position of the city lord; they will answer directly to the Evernight Crown while withholding autonomy over the development of the cities."

He knew that the great sects wanted to find him for business opportunities but he wasn't about to get a headache over whom he should please and offend.

Furthermore, providing the highest bidder with a private city would quickly expose the powerful and wealthy sects, at least those of them who liked to flaunt their power. Leonardo estimates that the lowkey powers would rather settle with buying an estate or two in one of the cities just to grab a position in the secular world.

It's not that the dynasties didn't want to meddle in the affairs of the great sects or vice versa, it was only that the ancient treaty governed by the Divine Temple restricted them greatly.

Aurora was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

Indeed, the most valuable thing Leonardo could offer to the great sects at the moment was land in the secular world. Although the Martial Script Pavilions in every secular city were a profitable business, the policy of each city restricts the flow of traffic. When you would include the political struggles, the great sects are actually suffering from a great loss.

If they could govern their own secular domains, things would be different.

Leonardo's new territory offered them just that.